Customer Accounts

Goldenseal is customer management software that helps you to track your customers and manage your marketing efforts. Customer accounts store info for each customer.

HINT-- The Goldenseal accounting software uses Customer accounts for people or businesses who give you money for goods or services.

WORKING WITH CUSTOMERS
Who is a Customer? | Who is not a Customer?
Credit Ratings | One-Time Names | Using Customer Accounts

ENTERING CUSTOMER DATA
Creating Customer Accounts | Data Fields | Sales Setup
Calculated Fields | Status Field | Optional Fields

Website Info Links
Accounting Software | Bookkeeping Software | Customer Management Software | Customer Relations

Who is a Customer?

Create a Customer account for anyone who pays you money for goods or services.

For retail Sales, always create a Customer account for customers who are billed later. For cash sales, you do not need to create an account for every customer-- though you may want to create accounts for your most frequent customers, or for customers to whom you make deliveries.

If you sell to people whom you don't know or who don't deserve a Customer account, create one or more "unknown name" Customer accounts for them. In those accounts, turn on the Allow One Time Names checkbox.

For project work, create a Customer account for each person or business that has signed for work via a Project account. The Customer account handles the person, and the Project account handles the piece of work. In the future you may create additional projects for the same customer.

Create Customer accounts for rental tenants who have signed a Lease with you.

Who is not a Customer?

You do not need to create Customer accounts for possible customers who have not yet purchased from you or signed for a project. Enter them as a Prospect instead.

HINT-- When a prospect buys from you or sigsn for a project, use the Convert to Customer button to add them as a customer.

You do not need to create Customer accounts for miscellaneous income such as supplier refunds or bank interest (you can handle those items through regular expense transactions). However if you sell goods or provide services to a supplier or a bank, enter them as a separate Customer account.

Creating Customer Accounts

To create a new Customer account, follow these steps:

Choose Customers from the Accounts menu.
You'll see a browser window where you can view customer info.
Click the New button, or choose New Record from the Edit menu.
Enter information about the customer.
Click the Enter key to Save the account.

QUICK SETUP HINT-- You only need to enter an Account Name. For customer billing, also fill in Full Name and Address. For sales, fill in Credit Rating, Credit Limit, Payment Terms and Sales Tax Rate.

Data Fields

Enter the following information for each Customer account:

Account Name-- Enter a short name for the customer account. This is the text that will appear in the Chart of Accounts and clairvoyant fields.
Full Name-- Enter the full name for the customer. This is the name that will be printed on estimates, invoices, checks and other documents.
Contact Name-- If the account is for a business, enter the name of a contact person.
Phone Numbers-- Enter day and evening phone numbers, and a fax number for the customer.
HINT-- There is enough room to add extension numbers or other phone details, if you desire.
E-mail-- Enter the customer's e-mail address.
Main Address-- Enter the main address that you'll use for the customer. This is the location where you'll send estimates, marketing materials or other correspondence. Type the street information into the first box, then city, state and zip code or postal codes into the other three boxes.
HINT-- By using separate fields, it's easier to find customers by their city, state or zip code. If you don't want to enter those fields separately, use the Custom Layout command to remove them, and use the Address field instead.
Comments-- Type in any comments you may have about this customer.
HINT-- You can enter key words in this box to make it easier to find groups of clients.

Created-- When you create a new customer account, Goldenseal automatically assigns a creation date. With the correct password, you can change the date.
Account Number-- Goldenseal automatically assigns each customer a unique number. To change the numbering system, choose Record Numbers from the Options menu.
Job Type-- Use the clairvoyant field to enter the Job Type to which this customer belongs.
Source-- Choose the Prospect Source where this customer heard about your company.
Allow One Time Names-- Turn on this checkbox if you use this account for miscellaneous customers that you'll type in for each sale.

View Contacts-- Click on the View Contacts buttons to see a record of contacts with this customer.

Sales Setup

Click on the Sales Setup button to enter additional info for each customer:

Sales Setup
Sales Tax Rate-- Enter the sales tax rate that you usually use for sales delivered to this customer.
Discount-- Use the clairvoyant field to enter the Customer Discount that you give to this account.
Taxable-- Turn on the checkbox if this customer generally is charged sales tax. Turn it off for a tax-exempt customer.

Credit Info
Credit Rating-- Choose the credit rating that you give to this customer.
Credit Limit-- If the client is limited to a maximum credit amount, enter the limit here. Goldenseal will warn you if you enter a sales transaction that puts them over the limit.
Payment Terms-- If you usually bill this customer, enter the usual payment terms. Otherwise you can leave this field blank.

Address Setup
Billing Address-- If the customer has a billing address that is different from the main address, turn on the checkbox, and type in the billing address. If the checkbox is turned off, the main address is automatically used for billing.
NOTE-- The delivery and billing addresses combine the entire address into a single field.
Delivery Address-- If the customer has a shipping or delivery address that is different from the main address, turn on the checkbox, and type in the delivery address. If the checkbox is turned off, the main address is automatically used for deliveries.
Delivery Instructions-- Enter directions, or any other instructions used for shipping or deliveries.

Other Info
Sales Rep-- If an Employee will receive a commission for sales to this customer, enter them here. Only employees that have a commission rate can be entered.
Job Cost Budget-- If you use an Estimate as a budget for sales to this customer, enter it here. You might use a budget for a customer who makes regular purchases or who is signed to a long-term contract.
Include in Starter File-- Turn on the checkbox if you'd like to include this account when you create a new starter file.
Tax ID-- If the customer has an ID number for sales tax collections, enter it here.

Calculated Fields

Goldenseal shows the following calculated info for each customer:

Current Balance-- The amount of unpaid sales currently owed by this customer (accounts receivable).
Last Purchase Date-- The date of the most recent Sales transaction
Paid On Account-- The amount this customer has paid to you without crediting the payment to a specific transaction.

Status Field

Enter the current status of this account:

Active-- You currently do business with this customer.
Inactive-- You don't currently do business with this customer, but you may in the future.
Closed-- You definitely don't do business with this customer any more.

Credit Ratings

You can give each customer a credit rating. The choices are:

No Limit-- Give this rating to customers who don't have a maximum credit limit.
Top Rating-- Give this rating to customers who are consider the most reliable, but who still have a credit limit.
OK-- Give this rating to customers who have average reliability.
Caution-- Give this rating to customers who still receive full credit privileges, but who are not fully reliable.
HINT-- There is no difference in the way that Goldenseal handles the Top, OK and Caution ratings. However you can still use them for finds, or for your own credit classifications.
Prepaid Only-- Give this rating for customers who must prepay for sales. You won't be able to enter Sales to this customer that have Billed as a payment method.
Cash Only-- Give this rating for customers who must pay by cash or credit card. You won't be able to enter Sales to this customer that have Billed or Check as a payment method.
No Sales-- You won't be able to enter any Sales to this customer.

One-Time Names

Turn on the Allow One-Time Names checkbox for Customer accounts that you use to record cash sales to infrequent customers who don't deserve their own customer account.

When you enter that customer into a Sales transaction, you'll be able to type in a one-time name to identify the sale.

Viewing Contacts

To view contact records for this customer, click one of the buttons in the right side of the record layout.

Click View Appointments to see Appointments with this customer.
Click View Contact Log to see Contact Log records for this customer.
Click View Document Log to see Document Log records for this customer.
Click View Problem Log to see Problem Log records for this customer.
Click View Estimates to see Estimates for this customers.

Action Buttons

Click Enter Contact to create a Contact Log record for this customer. Use it when you meet with the customer, when they call you, or when any other contact happens.
Click Enter Sale to create a Sale transaction for this customer.

Optional Fields

Use the Custom Layouts command to add any of the following optional fields:

Account Number-- you can assign account numbers to each cash account
Balance Sheet Value-- the calculated asset value of the account
Last Reconciled-- the most recent use of the Reconcile command

You can also show fields for Email, Fax Number, Full Name and Phone number, or use those text fields for any other text information about the account.
HINT-- You can also add custom fields to store any other information about your Customer accounts.

Using Customer Accounts

You can use Customer accounts in several types of transactions.
Appointments-- Enter any Appointments you have with customers.
Contact Log-- Enter any Contacts you have with customers-- phone calls, letters, meetings etc.
Estimates-- When you do an Estimate, you can choose a customer for whom it will be done. Address and billing information will be entered automatically, based on the Customer account.
Projects-- If you do a Project for someone else, enter them as a customer and then assign the project to them.
Sales-- All Sales are made to a Customer account.

Use the Print Forms command to print mailing labels, envelopes or form letters for your customer mailings.